Luca Mazzoni | Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy (original) (raw)
Papers by Luca Mazzoni
Current drug targets, 2016
AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance betwee... more AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance between ATP production and consumption in most eukaryotic cells. It plays a relevant role in regulating cellular metabolism, preserving cellular energy homeostasis, and is involved in many other cellular processes as well as metabolic ones, including cell cycle regulation and endothelial and vascular relaxation. Recently, the effects of naturally occurring compounds able to prevent and treat diseases through AMPK activation have attracted the attention of many researchers. Among such compounds, flavonoids found in natural sources, like quercetin, genistein, epigallocatechins, resveratrol, have been proposed as AMPK activators. This review summarizes and updates the most recent findings concerning the mechanisms through which different dietary compounds, from plant foods, affect the AMPK pathway in healthy and pathological in vitro and in vivo models, paying particular attention to molecular me...
Journal of Functional Foods, 2016
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 14786419 2012 706294, Mar 5, 2013
The strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa, Duch.) represents a relevant source of micronutrients, such ... more The strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa, Duch.) represents a relevant source of micronutrients, such as minerals, vitamin C, folate and phenolic substances, most of which are natural antioxidants and contribute to the high nutritional quality of the fruit. All these compounds are essential for health and, in particular, strawberry phenolics are best known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action, and possess directly and indirectly antimicrobial, anti-allergy and anti-hypertensive properties, as well as the capacity to inhibit the activities of some physiological enzymes and receptor properties. The main objective of this article is to review and update the current knowledge on the potential impact of the strawberry on human health, with particular attention on compounds and their possible mechanisms of action.
Introduzione 1 Nell'ultimo ventennio, il cambiamento climatico globale, ha assunto un ruolo s... more Introduzione 1 Nell'ultimo ventennio, il cambiamento climatico globale, ha assunto un ruolo sempre più centrale nella definizione delle politiche internazionali. La presa di co-scienza dell'esistenza di tematiche ambientali legate a fattori antropici ha portato infatti alla ricerca delle cause del degrado ambientale e alla proposta di soluzio-ni che possano mitigare se non annullare il procedere di questo trend negativo. In particolare, è stato riconosciuto che l'incremento di alcuni gas detti a "effetto serra" (Greenhouse Gases o GHG) dovuto soprattutto ai settori del trasporto, ha contribuito notevolmente ad un innalzamento della temperatura media della Ter-ra (EEA, 2009). Per ovviare a tale problema, le principali politiche internazionali (Protocollo di Kyoto) e soprattutto europee (Direttiva 2009/28/CE) hanno cercato di porre dei limiti nelle emissioni di tali gas tramite l'incentivazione della produzione di biocombustibili il cui consumo è diventato ob...
In the last years, the nutritional quality of fruits has been widely evaluated and requested by c... more In the last years, the nutritional quality of fruits has been widely evaluated and requested by consumers, mainly because of the health effects they provide. As known, these benefits can be due to micronutrients, as vitamins and minerals, but also to phenolic compounds, as flavonoids and ellagitannins. In this context, strawberries represent a very good choice for a diet low in saturated fats and sodium and, at the same time they are rich in fiber, potassium and other minerals, vitamins, and antioxidant phytochemicals: all elements that are currently considered as the essential constituents of a well-balanced diet. However, the nutritional quality of strawberry fruits can be considerably affected by several pre-harvest and post-harvest conditions, which, in most cases, may decrease the nutrient and the phytochemical contents of this fruit.
Foods, 2014
Honey has been used as a food and medical product since the earliest times. It has been used in m... more Honey has been used as a food and medical product since the earliest times. It has been used in many cultures for its medicinal properties, as a remedy for burns, cataracts, ulcers and wound healing, because it exerts a soothing effect when initially applied to open wounds. Depending on its origin, honey can be classified in different categories among which, monofloral honey seems to be the most promising and interesting as a natural remedy. Manuka honey, a monofloral honey derived from the manuka tree (Leptospermum scoparium), has greatly attracted the attention of researchers for its biological properties, especially its antimicrobial and antioxidant capacities. Our manuscript reviews the chemical composition and the variety of beneficial nutritional and health effects of manuka honey. Firstly, the chemical composition of manuka honey is described, with special attention given to its polyphenolic composition and other bioactive compounds, such as glyoxal and methylglyoxal. Then, the effect of manuka honey in wound treatment is described, as well as its antioxidant activity and other important biological effects. OPEN ACCESS Foods 2014, 3 421
Natural Product Research, 2013
Strawberries are a common and important fruit in the Mediterranean diet because of their high con... more Strawberries are a common and important fruit in the Mediterranean diet because of their high content of essential nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals, which seem to have relevant biological activity in human health. Among these phytochemicals, anthocyanin and ellagitannins are the major antioxidant compounds. Although individual phytochemical constituents of strawberries have been studied for their biological activities, human intervention studies using whole fruits are still lacking. Here, the nutritional contribution and phytochemical composition of the strawberry are reviewed, as is the role played by the maturity, genotype, and storage effects on this fruit. Specific attention is focused on fruit absorption, metabolism, and the possible beneficial biological activity on human health.
European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology
Current drug targets, Jan 15, 2015
AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance betwee... more AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance between ATP production and consumption in most eukaryotic cells. It plays a relevant role in regulating cellular metabolism, preserving cellular energy homeostasis, and is involved in many other cellular processes as well as metabolic ones, including cell cycle regulation and endothelial and vascular relaxation. Recently, the effects of naturally occurring compounds able to prevent and treat diseases through AMPK activation have attracted the attention of many researchers. Among such compounds, flavonoids found in natural sources, like quercetin, genistein, epigallocatechins, resveratrol, have been proposed as AMPK activators. This review summarizes and updates the most recent findings concerning the mechanisms through which different dietary compounds, from plant foods, affect the AMPK pathway in healthy and pathological in vitro and in vivo models, paying particular attention to molecular me...
The association of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and a reduction in the incidence of severa... more The association of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and a reduction in the incidence of several chronic pathologies, including obesity, infections, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and cancer has been often highlighted by many epidemiologic studies. In particular, berries have an important role among fruits because of their high phytochemical content. The most common and important berry consumed in the Mediterranean diet is strawberry, and it assumes an important role in the prevention of such chronic pathologies. This beneficial effect on the human health is due to its high content of bioactive compounds, like vitamin C, folate and phenolic constituents, most of which express relevant antioxidant capacities in vitro and in vivo. The content of all these phytochemical compounds is a measure of the Nutritional Quality of the fruit. The main phenolic compounds detected in strawberry are flavonoids (anthocyanins, flavanols and flavonols), hydrolyzable tannins (ellagitannins...
Journal of the science of food and agriculture, Jan 15, 2015
Berries are a relevant source of micronutrients and nonessential phytochemicals such as polypheno... more Berries are a relevant source of micronutrients and nonessential phytochemicals such as polyphenol compounds, that play a synergistic and cumulative role in human health promotion. Several systematic analyses showed that berry phenolics are able to detoxify ROS/RNS blocking their production, to intervene in the cell cycle, participating in the transduction and expression of genes involved in apoptosis, and to repair oxidative DNA damage. As a consequence, the improvement of the nutritional quality of berries has become a new quality target of breeding and biotechnological strategies, to control or to increase the content of specific health-related compounds in fruits. This work reviews, on the basis of the in vitro and in vivo evidences, the main berries phytochemical compounds and their possible mechanisms of action on pathways involved in several type of diseases, with particular attention to cancer, inflammation, neurodegeneration, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross pr... more This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross program, and their parents for fruit weight, commercial yield, acidity, sugar content, antioxidant capacity, and phenol and anthocyanin contents. Phytochemical profiling analysis was performed to determine the compositional characteristics of the improved selections in comparison with their parents and an important commercial variety ('Elsanta'). Advanced selections showed substantial improvement for agronomic and nutritional quality parameters. From the profiling analysis there was evidence for specific improvements in fruit phytochemical contents; new advanced selections had substantially increased fruit flavonol, anthocyanin, and ellagitannin contents compared to their parent cultivar 'Romina' and, for flavonols and ellagitannins, compared to a standard cultivar 'Elsanta'. Such results confirm that an appropriate breeding program that includes wild strawberry germplasm can produce new strawberry cultivars with a well-defined improvement in fruit nutritional and nutraceutical values.
Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 2013
Food & Function, 2014
This study investigates the protective effect of the Sveva strawberry polyphenol-rich extract on ... more This study investigates the protective effect of the Sveva strawberry polyphenol-rich extract on human dermal fibroblasts against AAPH-induced oxidative stress. The HPLC-DAD/ESI-MS analysis was used for evaluating the phenolic composition of the fruits. Sveva strawberry presented a high anthocyanin content (639.79 mg per kg fresh fruit), representing 86.0886.08% of the total phenolic content, with Pg-3glc as the most abundant representative (611.18 mg per kg fresh fruit). Only one ellagitannin (agrimoniin) was identified, while two quercetins, three kaempherol derivates, and three ellagic acid derivatives were detected and quantified. Strawberry pre-treatment (0.5 mg ml À1 ) markedly increased human dermal fibroblast viability, with a significant reduction of apoptotic and dead cells, and suppressed AAPHinduced ROS generation, after only 30 minutes of incubation with the oxidizing agent, and lipid peroxidation, against a range of AAPH concentrations tested. Notably, the strawberry extract also improved the mitochondrial functionality: the basal respiratory performance after treatment was 86.081.59fold higher compared to control cells, while pre-treatment with strawberry extract before oxidative damage increased $2.70-fold compared to stressed cells. Our results confirm that the strawberry possesses antioxidant properties, and may be useful for the prevention of free radical-induced skin damage.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2014
This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross pr... more This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross program, and their parents for fruit weight, commercial yield, acidity, sugar content, antioxidant capacity, and phenol and anthocyanin contents. Phytochemical profiling analysis was performed to determine the compositional characteristics of the improved selections in comparison with their parents and an important commercial variety ('Elsanta'). Advanced selections showed substantial improvement for agronomic and nutritional quality parameters. From the profiling analysis there was evidence for specific improvements in fruit phytochemical contents; new advanced selections had substantially increased fruit flavonol, anthocyanin, and ellagitannin contents compared to their parent cultivar 'Romina' and, for flavonols and ellagitannins, compared to a standard cultivar 'Elsanta'. Such results confirm that an appropriate breeding program that includes wild strawberry germplasm can produce new strawberry cultivars with a well-defined improvement in fruit nutritional and nutraceutical values.
Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2014
Mitochondria are essential organelles for cellular integrity and functionality maintenance and th... more Mitochondria are essential organelles for cellular integrity and functionality maintenance and their imparement is implicated in the development of a wide range of diseases, including metabolic, cardiovascular, degenerative and hyperproliferative pathologies. The identification of different compounds able to interact with mitochondria for therapeutic purposes is currently becoming of primary importance. Indeed, it is well known that foods, particularly those of vegetable origin, present several constituents with beneficial effects on health. This review summarizes and updates the most recent findings concerning the mechanisms through which different dietary compounds from plant foods affect mitochondria functionality in healthy and pathological in vitro and in vivo models, paying particular attention to the pathways involved in mitochondrial biogenesis and apoptosis.
Strawberries are highly appreciated for their taste, nutritional value and antioxidant compounds,... more Strawberries are highly appreciated for their taste, nutritional value and antioxidant compounds, mainly phenolics. Fruit antioxidants derive from achenes and flesh, but achene contribution to the total fruit antioxidant capacity and to the bioaccessibility after intake is still unknown. In this work, the content of total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, anthocyanins and antioxidant capacity (TEAC, FRAP and DPPH) of achenes and flesh were compared in non-digested as well as in gastric and intestinal extracts after in vitro digestion. Results showed that, despite strawberry achenes represent a small fraction of the fruit, their contribution to total fruit antioxidant content was more than 41% and accounted for 81% of antioxidant capacity (TEAC). Achenes have higher quantity and different quality of antioxidants in non-digested and digested extracts. Antioxidant release was higher in the in vitro gastric digested extracts, but digestion conditions did not only affect quantity but quality, resulting in differences in antioxidant capacity and highlighting the importance of simulating physiological-like extraction conditions for assessing fruit antioxidant properties on human health. These results give new insights into the use of strawberry achenes as a source of bioactive compounds to be considered in strawberry breeding programs for improving human health.
Current drug targets, 2016
AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance betwee... more AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance between ATP production and consumption in most eukaryotic cells. It plays a relevant role in regulating cellular metabolism, preserving cellular energy homeostasis, and is involved in many other cellular processes as well as metabolic ones, including cell cycle regulation and endothelial and vascular relaxation. Recently, the effects of naturally occurring compounds able to prevent and treat diseases through AMPK activation have attracted the attention of many researchers. Among such compounds, flavonoids found in natural sources, like quercetin, genistein, epigallocatechins, resveratrol, have been proposed as AMPK activators. This review summarizes and updates the most recent findings concerning the mechanisms through which different dietary compounds, from plant foods, affect the AMPK pathway in healthy and pathological in vitro and in vivo models, paying particular attention to molecular me...
Journal of Functional Foods, 2016
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 14786419 2012 706294, Mar 5, 2013
The strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa, Duch.) represents a relevant source of micronutrients, such ... more The strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa, Duch.) represents a relevant source of micronutrients, such as minerals, vitamin C, folate and phenolic substances, most of which are natural antioxidants and contribute to the high nutritional quality of the fruit. All these compounds are essential for health and, in particular, strawberry phenolics are best known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action, and possess directly and indirectly antimicrobial, anti-allergy and anti-hypertensive properties, as well as the capacity to inhibit the activities of some physiological enzymes and receptor properties. The main objective of this article is to review and update the current knowledge on the potential impact of the strawberry on human health, with particular attention on compounds and their possible mechanisms of action.
Introduzione 1 Nell'ultimo ventennio, il cambiamento climatico globale, ha assunto un ruolo s... more Introduzione 1 Nell'ultimo ventennio, il cambiamento climatico globale, ha assunto un ruolo sempre più centrale nella definizione delle politiche internazionali. La presa di co-scienza dell'esistenza di tematiche ambientali legate a fattori antropici ha portato infatti alla ricerca delle cause del degrado ambientale e alla proposta di soluzio-ni che possano mitigare se non annullare il procedere di questo trend negativo. In particolare, è stato riconosciuto che l'incremento di alcuni gas detti a "effetto serra" (Greenhouse Gases o GHG) dovuto soprattutto ai settori del trasporto, ha contribuito notevolmente ad un innalzamento della temperatura media della Ter-ra (EEA, 2009). Per ovviare a tale problema, le principali politiche internazionali (Protocollo di Kyoto) e soprattutto europee (Direttiva 2009/28/CE) hanno cercato di porre dei limiti nelle emissioni di tali gas tramite l'incentivazione della produzione di biocombustibili il cui consumo è diventato ob...
In the last years, the nutritional quality of fruits has been widely evaluated and requested by c... more In the last years, the nutritional quality of fruits has been widely evaluated and requested by consumers, mainly because of the health effects they provide. As known, these benefits can be due to micronutrients, as vitamins and minerals, but also to phenolic compounds, as flavonoids and ellagitannins. In this context, strawberries represent a very good choice for a diet low in saturated fats and sodium and, at the same time they are rich in fiber, potassium and other minerals, vitamins, and antioxidant phytochemicals: all elements that are currently considered as the essential constituents of a well-balanced diet. However, the nutritional quality of strawberry fruits can be considerably affected by several pre-harvest and post-harvest conditions, which, in most cases, may decrease the nutrient and the phytochemical contents of this fruit.
Foods, 2014
Honey has been used as a food and medical product since the earliest times. It has been used in m... more Honey has been used as a food and medical product since the earliest times. It has been used in many cultures for its medicinal properties, as a remedy for burns, cataracts, ulcers and wound healing, because it exerts a soothing effect when initially applied to open wounds. Depending on its origin, honey can be classified in different categories among which, monofloral honey seems to be the most promising and interesting as a natural remedy. Manuka honey, a monofloral honey derived from the manuka tree (Leptospermum scoparium), has greatly attracted the attention of researchers for its biological properties, especially its antimicrobial and antioxidant capacities. Our manuscript reviews the chemical composition and the variety of beneficial nutritional and health effects of manuka honey. Firstly, the chemical composition of manuka honey is described, with special attention given to its polyphenolic composition and other bioactive compounds, such as glyoxal and methylglyoxal. Then, the effect of manuka honey in wound treatment is described, as well as its antioxidant activity and other important biological effects. OPEN ACCESS Foods 2014, 3 421
Natural Product Research, 2013
Strawberries are a common and important fruit in the Mediterranean diet because of their high con... more Strawberries are a common and important fruit in the Mediterranean diet because of their high content of essential nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals, which seem to have relevant biological activity in human health. Among these phytochemicals, anthocyanin and ellagitannins are the major antioxidant compounds. Although individual phytochemical constituents of strawberries have been studied for their biological activities, human intervention studies using whole fruits are still lacking. Here, the nutritional contribution and phytochemical composition of the strawberry are reviewed, as is the role played by the maturity, genotype, and storage effects on this fruit. Specific attention is focused on fruit absorption, metabolism, and the possible beneficial biological activity on human health.
European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology
Current drug targets, Jan 15, 2015
AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance betwee... more AMPK is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has the function of maintaining the balance between ATP production and consumption in most eukaryotic cells. It plays a relevant role in regulating cellular metabolism, preserving cellular energy homeostasis, and is involved in many other cellular processes as well as metabolic ones, including cell cycle regulation and endothelial and vascular relaxation. Recently, the effects of naturally occurring compounds able to prevent and treat diseases through AMPK activation have attracted the attention of many researchers. Among such compounds, flavonoids found in natural sources, like quercetin, genistein, epigallocatechins, resveratrol, have been proposed as AMPK activators. This review summarizes and updates the most recent findings concerning the mechanisms through which different dietary compounds, from plant foods, affect the AMPK pathway in healthy and pathological in vitro and in vivo models, paying particular attention to molecular me...
The association of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and a reduction in the incidence of severa... more The association of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and a reduction in the incidence of several chronic pathologies, including obesity, infections, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and cancer has been often highlighted by many epidemiologic studies. In particular, berries have an important role among fruits because of their high phytochemical content. The most common and important berry consumed in the Mediterranean diet is strawberry, and it assumes an important role in the prevention of such chronic pathologies. This beneficial effect on the human health is due to its high content of bioactive compounds, like vitamin C, folate and phenolic constituents, most of which express relevant antioxidant capacities in vitro and in vivo. The content of all these phytochemical compounds is a measure of the Nutritional Quality of the fruit. The main phenolic compounds detected in strawberry are flavonoids (anthocyanins, flavanols and flavonols), hydrolyzable tannins (ellagitannins...
Journal of the science of food and agriculture, Jan 15, 2015
Berries are a relevant source of micronutrients and nonessential phytochemicals such as polypheno... more Berries are a relevant source of micronutrients and nonessential phytochemicals such as polyphenol compounds, that play a synergistic and cumulative role in human health promotion. Several systematic analyses showed that berry phenolics are able to detoxify ROS/RNS blocking their production, to intervene in the cell cycle, participating in the transduction and expression of genes involved in apoptosis, and to repair oxidative DNA damage. As a consequence, the improvement of the nutritional quality of berries has become a new quality target of breeding and biotechnological strategies, to control or to increase the content of specific health-related compounds in fruits. This work reviews, on the basis of the in vitro and in vivo evidences, the main berries phytochemical compounds and their possible mechanisms of action on pathways involved in several type of diseases, with particular attention to cancer, inflammation, neurodegeneration, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross pr... more This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross program, and their parents for fruit weight, commercial yield, acidity, sugar content, antioxidant capacity, and phenol and anthocyanin contents. Phytochemical profiling analysis was performed to determine the compositional characteristics of the improved selections in comparison with their parents and an important commercial variety ('Elsanta'). Advanced selections showed substantial improvement for agronomic and nutritional quality parameters. From the profiling analysis there was evidence for specific improvements in fruit phytochemical contents; new advanced selections had substantially increased fruit flavonol, anthocyanin, and ellagitannin contents compared to their parent cultivar 'Romina' and, for flavonols and ellagitannins, compared to a standard cultivar 'Elsanta'. Such results confirm that an appropriate breeding program that includes wild strawberry germplasm can produce new strawberry cultivars with a well-defined improvement in fruit nutritional and nutraceutical values.
Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 2013
Food & Function, 2014
This study investigates the protective effect of the Sveva strawberry polyphenol-rich extract on ... more This study investigates the protective effect of the Sveva strawberry polyphenol-rich extract on human dermal fibroblasts against AAPH-induced oxidative stress. The HPLC-DAD/ESI-MS analysis was used for evaluating the phenolic composition of the fruits. Sveva strawberry presented a high anthocyanin content (639.79 mg per kg fresh fruit), representing 86.0886.08% of the total phenolic content, with Pg-3glc as the most abundant representative (611.18 mg per kg fresh fruit). Only one ellagitannin (agrimoniin) was identified, while two quercetins, three kaempherol derivates, and three ellagic acid derivatives were detected and quantified. Strawberry pre-treatment (0.5 mg ml À1 ) markedly increased human dermal fibroblast viability, with a significant reduction of apoptotic and dead cells, and suppressed AAPHinduced ROS generation, after only 30 minutes of incubation with the oxidizing agent, and lipid peroxidation, against a range of AAPH concentrations tested. Notably, the strawberry extract also improved the mitochondrial functionality: the basal respiratory performance after treatment was 86.081.59fold higher compared to control cells, while pre-treatment with strawberry extract before oxidative damage increased $2.70-fold compared to stressed cells. Our results confirm that the strawberry possesses antioxidant properties, and may be useful for the prevention of free radical-induced skin damage.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2014
This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross pr... more This study evaluated 20 advanced selections, derived from a strawberry interspecific backcross program, and their parents for fruit weight, commercial yield, acidity, sugar content, antioxidant capacity, and phenol and anthocyanin contents. Phytochemical profiling analysis was performed to determine the compositional characteristics of the improved selections in comparison with their parents and an important commercial variety ('Elsanta'). Advanced selections showed substantial improvement for agronomic and nutritional quality parameters. From the profiling analysis there was evidence for specific improvements in fruit phytochemical contents; new advanced selections had substantially increased fruit flavonol, anthocyanin, and ellagitannin contents compared to their parent cultivar 'Romina' and, for flavonols and ellagitannins, compared to a standard cultivar 'Elsanta'. Such results confirm that an appropriate breeding program that includes wild strawberry germplasm can produce new strawberry cultivars with a well-defined improvement in fruit nutritional and nutraceutical values.
Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2014
Mitochondria are essential organelles for cellular integrity and functionality maintenance and th... more Mitochondria are essential organelles for cellular integrity and functionality maintenance and their imparement is implicated in the development of a wide range of diseases, including metabolic, cardiovascular, degenerative and hyperproliferative pathologies. The identification of different compounds able to interact with mitochondria for therapeutic purposes is currently becoming of primary importance. Indeed, it is well known that foods, particularly those of vegetable origin, present several constituents with beneficial effects on health. This review summarizes and updates the most recent findings concerning the mechanisms through which different dietary compounds from plant foods affect mitochondria functionality in healthy and pathological in vitro and in vivo models, paying particular attention to the pathways involved in mitochondrial biogenesis and apoptosis.
Strawberries are highly appreciated for their taste, nutritional value and antioxidant compounds,... more Strawberries are highly appreciated for their taste, nutritional value and antioxidant compounds, mainly phenolics. Fruit antioxidants derive from achenes and flesh, but achene contribution to the total fruit antioxidant capacity and to the bioaccessibility after intake is still unknown. In this work, the content of total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, anthocyanins and antioxidant capacity (TEAC, FRAP and DPPH) of achenes and flesh were compared in non-digested as well as in gastric and intestinal extracts after in vitro digestion. Results showed that, despite strawberry achenes represent a small fraction of the fruit, their contribution to total fruit antioxidant content was more than 41% and accounted for 81% of antioxidant capacity (TEAC). Achenes have higher quantity and different quality of antioxidants in non-digested and digested extracts. Antioxidant release was higher in the in vitro gastric digested extracts, but digestion conditions did not only affect quantity but quality, resulting in differences in antioxidant capacity and highlighting the importance of simulating physiological-like extraction conditions for assessing fruit antioxidant properties on human health. These results give new insights into the use of strawberry achenes as a source of bioactive compounds to be considered in strawberry breeding programs for improving human health.